12 People Who Did the Unthinkable in the Heat of the Moment

We often hear advice about carefully considering decisions before making them quickly, as hasty choices can lead to regret. However, it’s challenging to keep emotions in check when confronted with an unexpected and frustrating situation. The stories in this article revolve around actions or reactions made in the heat of the moment. Whether people later regretted their choices or, conversely, found satisfaction, these moments are certainly memorable.

• A coworker made a pass at my girlfriend at a social event. He said, “It’s a free country,” and tried to shake hands, so I pretended I was cool and gave him a bro hug but didn’t let go.
  When he looked at me, puzzled, I inched my face close to his and romantically closed my eyes, like I was going in for a kiss. When he pushed me off, and said, “What the heck?” I told him, “That’s exactly how she felt. Stay away from us.” © dusk27 / Reddit

• A man came up to me outside a gas station and tried to sell me a watch. I was in a bad mood. He was just a human being struggling and did nothing wrong to me.
  I got into my car, took a dollar out, held it out of the window as I passed him, and when he got close enough to grab it, I ripped it in half and dropped it. I saw the crushing sadness wash over him, and I just drove away. © Unknown user / Reddit

• When a cop asked why I thought I could go that fast down that road, I (without thinking) responded, “Because I always do.” Then, I realized what my mouth had just said without consulting my brain and proceeded to lay my head against my steering wheel forcefully in shame. © BestAtempt / Reddit

• My husband’s laptop had a broken charger for years. Now, while I was using it, it totally broke. The laptop won’t charge anymore, and he claimed I broke it. I was like, “Dude, this thing was broken for years; we all knew this would happen one day.”
  He still said it was my fault, so I ordered 2 new laptops at 2 AM while angry. One for him and one for me. I’m not sure what I was trying to prove here, but I’m almost $2,000 poorer now. © SnooComics8268 / Reddit

• I had a nosy neighbor who was just bitter at the world. He would always do petty things like call the cops because I had music playing in my garage after 10 PM, or report us to city code enforcement for having too long of a lawn. After a while, I was fed up with it and decided to take action.
  Christmas rolls around, and I took out a Craigslist ad saying I needed old Christmas trees and was offering free disposal. I listed his address and said if I’m not home, feel free to leave them in the front yard. The next few weeks provided glorious entertainment as the trees stacked up, and when he was home, he would be out there yelling at people to take their tree and get out of his yard. © Wh***yTangoSailor / Reddit

• When I was 18, I took my 8-year-old sister to a movie. A woman yelled at her and made her cry for making a snapping noise with her bubble gum. Once the lady sat back down and my little sister stopped crying, I told her to hand me the bubble gum and stuck it in the lady’s beehive hair. © Max_power42 / Reddit

• When I was a kid, one afternoon, I wanted a hard-boiled egg, but my mom said no. I asked why, and she just said no. Upset, I went to my room. When she went to take a shower or whatever, I had the brilliant idea of making my desired egg treat with speed and stealth.
  I took a coffee mug, filled it with water, dropped the egg in, and stuck it in the microwave. I forget how long I set it for, but it was long enough for my mom to come back out to the sound of something cooking in the microwave. She asked me to come to the kitchen, which I shamefully did in defeat.
  Just as she began to ask me what I was cooking, the microwave started to beep. On the third beep, there was this very loud but muffled THUMP from the microwave. The egg had exploded...the cup had exploded...the microwave was ruined. This wouldn’t have been so bad had my family had enough money to replace a microwave and hadn’t wasted eggs. © legit_muffins / Reddit

• We were all 10-year-old girls at a sleepover, and everyone else had fallen asleep except for me, so I decided it was the perfect occasion to play a prank on them. I got up and shook a good amount of black pepper into my hand and went to several of the girls, holding it under their noses. What I was thinking would happen was they would wake up sneezing and be like, “Hey! That was silly!”
  But instead, they ended up waking up crying because they inhaled pepper, and it turns out black pepper being inhaled into a sensitive orifice can really sting. The girls cried so hard that my parents woke up, and I had to explain the whole innocent idea behind my scheme. I felt so bad. © looseyduckduckgoosey / Reddit

• I was coming home from the grocery store one day, and I was going 50 mph in a 45 mph zone when, out of nowhere, this guy came flying up on my tail and riding my bumper literally inches away. He did this for a good quarter mile or so, and I got fed up with it. I reached into my bag, opened my sunroof, and threw a whole carton of eggs out that proceeded to land all over the front end and windshield of his car. © iHeartKC / Reddit

• In kindergarten, I was reading alone in the corner, and this little girl, Emma, came up to me and said, “You’re weird, and no one will ever love you.” Thinking this was nonsense, I waited until nap-time, stole the teacher’s scissors, and cut off her mid-back ponytail. Threw it away, went back to my area, never got caught. © Alienist23 / Reddit

• My boyfriend at the time and I were going to the movies. As I was getting out of the car, I knocked over or stepped on a milkshake that had been left on the dividing line. I was so mad that I now had some nasty milkshake on me, and I thought it had to have been the car next to us that left it there due to placement. I picked up the cup and remaining milkshake and poured it on the car’s windshield, and we left. I have felt bad about it for almost 15 years. © lola_17 / Reddit

• My neighbor knocked my dad’s motorcycle and simply left it on the floor, smashing a mirror, and they didn’t even leave their insurance details. My dad refused to call the police, saying they probably didn’t notice, yet I saw them look at it and proceed to carry on with their usual lives. This annoyed me so much that I decided to call 20 taxis and 5 Chinese takeaways, all for 1 a.m. in the morning. It was a really childish thing to do, but we all do stupid things, right? © TomDunbar / Reddit

Just as we can amaze ourselves, strangers have the ability to completely astonish us with actions or reactions that we didn’t anticipate. The stories in this article revolve around people who did something truly unforgettable, leaving a significant impact.